As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information, or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology, information handling needs, and requirements may vary between different applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware, firmware, and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information, and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems generate heat as a result of their operation, and as they become more powerful, the amount of heat generated also increases. Cooling fans or other cooling devices are used in an information handling system to dissipate the heat and keep the information handling system operating within acceptable temperature ranges. Additionally, in applications where large numbers of information handling systems are operated in close proximity (e.g., data processing centers), air conditioning units remove the heat from the environment surrounding the information handling systems. As such, a significant portion of the overall power consumption in a data processing center is devoted to cooling, and any improvement in cooling efficiency may result in a lower operating cost.
Typically, the information handling systems in a data processing center include groups of blade servers in a modular enclosure or chassis. The chassis can be equipped with groups of cooling fans that run at substantially the same speed, as determined by the hottest temperature of a blade server or input/output (I/O) component in the chassis. In an example, the fans in a chassis are grouped by columns, the blade servers are placed vertically in the chassis, and several blade servers control the fan speed for each column of fans. This arrangement leads to running some fans at a higher speed than necessary to cool each particular blade server. This is a problem because the power consumed by a fan increases with the cube of the fan revolutions per minute (RPM) (i.e., Power∝(RPM)3). The arrangement also leads to overcooling of the blade servers that are not running hot, and results in cooler exhaust air being discharged from the chassis. Also, a larger air flow causes a greater load on air conditioning, air handling, and filtration systems, thus increasing operating costs.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.